"You can make food that was half-cooked look beautiful. You can make pictures of houses always look perfect. The professional photographer was always encouraged to show you perfection. Now, you have the ability to create your own reality."

While such tricks are common in fashion photography, digitally doctored photos are a no-no in photojournalism and have cost some photojournalists their jobs.

"If you have a photojournalist using it, it is one animal," Eiler said. "If you have an individual using it for their own pleasure and they want to lie to themselves, that is their choice."